Thanos Rising at Marvel

The most mysterious of Marvel's teasers from last week -- one that simply said "birth" -- has been revealed to be the new 5-issue mini-series Thanos Rising. Written by Jason Aaron with art by Simone Bianchi, the series will explore Thanos's rise to power in "a visceral tale of tragedy, deceit and destiny like you’ve never seen before."

"The story of Thanos' rise to power would make Shakespeare shudder," said Marvel's Editor-in-Chief, Axel Alonso. "The epic saga of a young boy, born in blood on a planet far, far away, who grows to become one of the most powerful and terrifying forces in the Marvel Universe, Thanos Risingtakes a cold, hard look at the eternal question: Are some people just born evil?'

“This is without a doubt one of the creepiest stories I've ever gotten to write for Marvel. It's the origin of an outer space serial killer, the story of the universe's weirdest romance and a grand cosmic tragedy, all wrapped up in one,” added Aaron. “This is me taking five issues to really dig into the head of a space-faring world conqueror, mass murderer and hopeless romantic. I love writing stories with villains as the main character, and this book is about Thanos all the way.”

Interestingly, Marvel canceled the planned Thanos: Son of Titan mini-series back in July 2012. That series, written by Joe Keatinge with art by Rich Elson, was supposed to explore Thanos' origin as well. Keatinge and Elson have since moved on to the new Morbius: The Living Vampire ongoing series.